We’ve dealt with extinct familiars before in the fanzines, by talking about folklore and its link to fossils, but the idea here is a bit different. There are several species which are living in Mythic Europe and have gone extinct since. These add odd colour to the game without changing the power level.
A few of these creatures are slight variations on animals which have already been stated in the core books. The Pyrenean Ibex is similar to the ibexes which currently live in Switzerland, but are larger and found on the border of modern Spain. They’ve gone extinct twice. After the death of the final great ibex a clone was produced from cell samples, but it died after seven minutes. Similarly the aurochs, which is the ancestral species of the domestic cow, still exists in 1220. It’s like a bull, but huge, so give it added Size and toughness. Conversely the Tarpan horse, which is still found in Eastern Europe during the game period, is a small, shy swift horse. We’d call it a pony because it is only four feet at the shoulder. It has folklore wrapped about it, so much so that people forgot what colour it really was. An Atlas bear is a svelte, rather more aggressive, version of the European bear. Let’s move onto some weirder options.
Do you want to play a cute mouse the size of a guinea pig? Pikas are still found in the modern world in South America. Until the Renaissance there were two weird stranded species surviving on the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. Corsica is important to the history of House Verdiitus, so I like having these things sitting on the shoulders of those magi. A pika can be statted as a large rat.
The Great Auk was a huge penguin-like bird that’s found on the coast of the icy sea from Norway, across Britain to Iceland. They aren’t penguins :they are an example of convergent evolution. Penguins, which were discovered when the southern hemisphere was explored by Europeans, are named after the auk. This is why the genus Penguinus is empty of living species: none of the penguins are in it. They make a cool variant to characters who have seal or dolphin heartbeasts or familiars. An auk can hold its breath underwater for 15 minutes and descend half a mile.
Time for my weirdest choice: but first let me do some special pleading. It was noted a few years ago that there’s a sulphur-crested cockatoo, drawn from life, can be found in the marginalia of a book from the court of Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor. These cockatoos are native to my part of Australia. Presumably it worked its way from the sea cucumber traders up the pilgrimage routes and then across to Europe. It may have helped that if you buy a sulphur-crested cockatoo, you are buying a pet from your grandchildren: they live over a hundred years. Also, they mimic humans like parrots, which makes them valuable. Stuff can get to Europe in all sorts of weird ways. Having said that, let me introduce megaladapis.
A megaladapis is a sort of giant lemur from Madagascar. You know King Julian? Imagine him made a meter and a half tall. The megaladapidae have a weirdl- shaped face for a lemur. It isn’t flat, like other primates. It is more fox or dog like. They are foliage eaters, but I just used the bear stats because, why not? They have huge claws. Well, fingers. Some people call them koala lemurs, so I play them as koalas: lazy and vaguely drugged out. I also like them because they have hands, and they don’t look like an ape.
Games From Folktales 